The words are engraved on a plaque outside the football stadium, immortalizing Tim Tebow forever.

"I promise you one thing. A lot of good will come out of this. You will never see any player in the entire country play as hard as I will play the rest of the season. You will never see someone push the rest of the team as hard as I will push everybody the rest of the season. You will never see a team play harder than we will the rest of the season."

We know what happens next. Tebow made his "Promise" speech after a 31-30 loss to Ole Miss last season. Then the Gators won the rest of their games and their third national championship.

The speech is now a part of college football lore, embodying the hype that goes with one of the most hyped athletes of our time. But will the speech be the shining moment of Tebow's legacy? Or will it be something yet to come?

As fall practice opens in Gainesville today, Tebow enters his senior season, the Superman quarterback poised to lead his team to back-to-back titles while perhaps convincing the country he truly is the best college football player of all time.

He already has his speech, his Heisman, his two national championship rings. But there is something else Tebow wants.

He wants that undefeated season. Says it right there in the text of his speech: "We were hoping for an undefeated season. That was my goal, something Florida has never done here."

If he does lead the Gators to their first-ever unbeaten season, will that mean more to his legacy than "The Promise" speech?

"If they go undefeated this year, then that is just the residual effect of that speech," said James Bates, who was captain of the 1996 Gator national championship team. "That speech is Tim Tebow, just a slice that we got to see and fortunate enough to follow along.

"Tebow is not only one of the best college football players of all time, but one of the best leaders of all time. It just seems to me like everything he says and does is that speech."

At the time he made his impromptu remarks following the loss on Sept. 27, nobody knew what to make of them. We have all heard our fair share of athletes make promises and guarantees, and simply shrug our shoulders.

As the Gators kept winning, everyone kept referring to the speech.

Perhaps it is because of the already larger-than-life persona Tebow has become that those words took on such great meaning. If Sam Bradford had made a similar speech after the loss to Texas and Oklahoma had won the national championship, would his words have been immortalized on the side of a football stadium?

"I didn't think it would become what it became," Tebow said at SEC Media Days. "I wasn't even thinking about that too much after the game. I just know I was upset, heartbroken. Just felt like I let my teammates down, my coaches, the fans. I wanted to let them know ultimately that something good was going to come out of this. But I didn't think it would have this much hype, no."

If you think the importance of the speech is overblown, then listen to Ole Miss Coach Houston Nutt, whose team beat Tebow and the Gators to spur the now famous promise.

"What I love about Tim Tebow, not only does he make the promise -- he carries it out and he puts his team on his back," Nutt said at SEC Media Days. "I have the words he spoke to the media, I have that on my desk. I read it to my team once. I have an awesome respect for that."

A rival coach read those words to his team, an incredible tribute to Tebow. His words will always be posted on that wall outside the football complex adjacent to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium for future generations to see. When people talk about the 2008 season, they will talk about that speech first.

Will the same be said of a 2009 undefeated season? Will there be a plaque commemorating the first unbeaten team? People love inspirational speeches, to sit back and remember promises made and kept. Perhaps they feel more tangible.

When Gator fans look back on this tremendous era of football, would the Promise speech or a first unbeaten season mean more?

"I think an undefeated season would indisputably solidify Tim's legacy in college football," said Leslie Ballard, a Gator graduate now living in Murfreesboro, Tenn. "His 'Promise' speech was inspiring and makes for a great story, but even after last season some haters still doubt. They say USC or Texas deserved to be in the title game."

The Gators have come close several times. In 1911, UF was 5-0-1, technically an undefeated season. In 1928, the Gators lost their final game to go 8-1. The Gators went 12-0 in 1995 before getting trampled in the national title game. They were unbeaten until the final regular-season game in 1996.

The 2006 and 2008 national championship teams lost one game each. In the last three decades, only four SEC teams won all their games and the national championship: 1979 Alabama, 1980 Georgia, 1992 Alabama and 1998 Tennessee.

The last time the Gators went unbeaten in SEC play was 1996.

"Do we want to go undefeated?" Tebow asked. "Absolutely. I'm not gonna say that we want to lose a game. But our mind-set is not to go undefeated. We're not going to be disappointed or heartbroken if we have a loss and we still win the national championship. We'll take that."

Tebow is reciting the company line. He knows better than to promise to lead the Gators to an undefeated season.